Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Shares Down 4.6% on Analyst Downgrade

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)’s stock price dropped 4.6% on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $111.00 to $100.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Vertiv traded as low as $76.02 and last traded at $77.83. Approximately 5,943,591 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 43% from the average daily volume of 10,403,932 shares. The stock had previously closed at $81.62.

A number of other research firms have also commented on VRT. Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Vertiv from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Vertiv in a report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. Melius lowered Vertiv from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada initiated coverage on Vertiv in a research note on Friday, March 7th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $121.00 target price for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.33.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Vertiv by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,356,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,130,415,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244,780 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Vertiv by 68.6% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,754,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $880,971,000 after buying an additional 3,153,932 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Vertiv by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,635,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $759,614,000 after buying an additional 308,704 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Vertiv by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,050,965 shares of the company’s stock valued at $688,260,000 after acquiring an additional 99,181 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in Vertiv during the fourth quarter worth $597,379,000. 89.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Vertiv Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $111.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $28.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.06, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.71.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.15. Vertiv had a net margin of 6.19% and a return on equity of 61.41%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 3.59 EPS for the current year.

Vertiv Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a $0.0375 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Vertiv’s payout ratio is 11.72%.

About Vertiv

Vertiv Holdings Co, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and services critical digital infrastructure technologies and life cycle services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.